WOCN & Alliance Work on Creating Sustainable Policy for CTPs

WOCN, in partnership with the Alliance of Wound Care Stakeholders, has been advocating for sustainable policies on skin substitute grafts/cellular and tissue-based products (CTP) for the treatment of diabetic foot ulcers (DFU) and venous leg ulcers (VLU) in the Medicare population.

CMS recently released finalized Local Coverage Determinations (LCDs) and accompanying Coding and Billing Articles. Key improvements include:

• Increased Application Limit: The maximum covered applications increased from 4 to 8 in the final policy, now consistent with the supportive clinical evidence and treatment guidelines.
• Extended Treatment Duration: The “episode of care” treatment duration increased from 12 to 16 weeks.

Under the finalized LCDs, providers have the application flexibility, supported by sufficient documentation, needed for wound healing. Importantly, Medicare beneficiaries with hard-to-heal DFUs/VLUs can benefit from improved outcomes.

WOCN and all Alliance members have worked tirelessly to create a coverage policy based on updated treatment protocols, and this updated policy reflects those efforts. A detailed statement from the Alliance can be found here. Look for additional resources from WOCN on this issue throughout 2025.